Born in Dublin on November 8, 1847, Abraham Stoker, or ‘Bram’ as he’s popularly known, was an Irish writer who is remembered today for his magnum opus, the malevolent Dracula, which he completed in 1897. He came into the world at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, a northern coastal suburb of Dublin on 8 November 1847, 176 years ago this year. The Crescent, Dublin’s only Georgian crescent, has 26 houses, putting number 15 towards its center.
Here Bram lived along with his seven siblings including brother Thornle, who became a renowned surgeon, and sister Matilda. Another resident of the crescent was Florence Balcombe who was a decade younger than Bram but who he married in 1878. A celebrated beauty and aspiring actress once courted by Oscar Wilde, she was living at number 1 at the time of the marriage.
Stoker meanwhile is commemorated in the naming of the adjacent green space, which is now Bram Stoker Park. One of seven children of senior civil servant Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Thornley, a charity worker and writing critic whom Bram would trust with his own material. Stoker was an infant invalid yet would go on to excel academically, attending Trinity College, Dublin between 1864 and 1870, graduating with a BA, and later being awarded an MA.
Stoker began work with the Irish Civil Service and was based at Dublin Castle, however, he was also ‘moonlighting’. Having become interested in the theater whilst a student, Stoker went on to become an unpaid theater critic with.
